New Claims Add To Clinton Woes

Depositions Allege More Sexual Encounters

March 14, 1998|By Naftali Bendavid, Washington Bureau.

WASHINGTON — Attorneys for Paula Jones filed court papers Friday that included sworn statements from several women, or their acquaintances, suggesting that they had sexual encounters with President Clinton during or before his White House tenure.

Much of the information has been made public before, but some dramatic new testimony also emerged, both about the alleged sexual encounters themselves and about alleged attempts to cover them up.

Former White House staffer Kathleen Willey, for example, describes in a deposition an alleged sexual assault by Clinton in the White House in 1993. She is scheduled to elaborate on this episode in a television interview Sunday night.

A high school classmate of Clinton's and a former Miss America also were among those cited in the documents, which urge a federal judge to reject Clinton's request to throw out the Jones sexual harassment suit.

The sometimes-graphic new material could undermine White House attempts to portray the allegations of various Clinton affairs as the handiwork of his political enemies. It is less clear that it will bolster Jones' case.

But Clinton's legal troubles could mount if the new charges are seized upon by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who is pursuing perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges against the president related to reports that he had a sexual relationship with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In their court filing, Jones' lawyers sought to portray a governor and president who used public resources, such as Arkansas state troopers and federal jobs, to silence women he had pursued.

"There has been a vast suppression of evidence and obstruction of justice in this case," said Jones attorney Donovan Campbell, who submitted the brief.

If Starr believes that Clinton falsely denied sexual encounters when he gave a sworn statement in the Jones case on Jan. 17, he could pursue perjury charges against the president.

At the least, the new revelations are part of a no-holds-barred public relations battle between the Jones and Clinton teams.

Friday's documents paint a portrait of Clinton as a disingenuous philanderer who seeks to silence his victims, providing a counterpoint to the attempts by the Clinton camp to portray Jones as opportunistic and untrustworthy.

Clinton did not comment on the onslaught Friday, but his attorney, Robert Bennett, was quick to denounce the brief, saying the charges are rehashed rumors and irrelevant to Jones' case.

"Her filing is not a serious legal document, it's a scurrilous paper," Bennett said. "The plaintiff, and her political and financial backers, are pursuing this case as a vehicle to humiliate and embarrass the president and to interfere with his presidency."

White House press secretary Mike McCurry, asked earlier in the day whether Clinton was dreading the papers' release, said, "He's a human being, and he has a human reaction when he reads stuff like that, sure."

The Jones case is scheduled to go to trial May 27 in Little Rock before federal Judge Susan Webber Wright.

Perhaps the most damaging new allegation came from Willey's deposition. She described visiting the president to ask for a paid position at the White House in 1993, because her family was experiencing a financial crisis.

While she and the president were in a hallway between the Oval Office and Clinton's private dining room, Willey said, Clinton hugged her.

"The hug just continued longer than I expected," Willey said. "He attempted to kiss me . . . on the lips. . . . I felt like it was more than just a platonic hug."

She went on, "He put my hands on his genitals," adding that Clinton was aroused. Willey said she pushed him away and left, she said.

In his Jan. 17 deposition, Clinton emphatically denied that any sexual encounter took place during this meeting.

Clinton added that he had no idea why Willey would concoct such an episode, but he noted that she may have been upset because of her financial difficulties and the fact that her husband committed suicide around the same time.

If Starr seizes on Willey's account, it would be another example of the interplay between Starr's investigation and the Jones case, an interaction that infuriates Clinton supporters.

If Willey appears believable and sympathetic in an interview on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" program, scheduled to air Sunday, that could affect the public perception of the president. Clinton's approval ratings have remained high despite the Jones and Lewinsky allegations.

In their legal brief, Jones' lawyers repeated previously reported allegations that Nathan Landow, a prominent Democratic activist in Maryland, attempted to persuade Willey to give an innocuous account of her meeting with Clinton.

Another set of startling allegations was made by Dolly Kyle Browning, who attended high school with Clinton in Arkansas.